WiFi in the Sky?

What is there to do on a flight? Not much right? Sit back and ‘enjoy’ the in flight entertainment that looks to have been installed in the early bronze age? Not anymore.

Virgin America is launching improved WiFi on their planes as early as this year. Not primitive, 5 minutes to log into Facebook WiFi either, they claim it will be more than sufficient to stream movies from Netflix and do pretty much anything you can do at home.

I know the first thing that comes to mind “Oooo I can watch Orange is The New Black whilst in 50,000ft in the sky” and frankly, I think I would be of the same opinion.

The first thing that came to my mind however, maybe because I’m boring but I’ll say it’s because I’m ‘business minded’, was the huge benefit this will give to companies that ferry executives from state to state. A flight from Washington to Florida will take the best part of 8 hours, if that flight starts at 9am it’s an entire day without the vital connection that people need to do their job. In the coming months they can do everything that they can do from their desk, what’s stopping them from even listening into meetings through Skype or Google Hangouts? It’s an office in the sky, no excuses to watch your favourite sitcom right?

To do all of this, Virgin is teaming up with ViaSat to produce the fastest internet access on commercial passenger jets. The system uses Ka satellite across the US that will deliver speeds that are 30 times faster than current systems and it’s pretty impressive.

At Automate Systems we supply and install a range of networked equipment, from IP intercoms to fully track-able biometric access systems. For more info please call 08450 777 778 or email sales@automatesystems.co.uk.

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